1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a maintenance information communication terminal and a maintenance information management host for exchanging maintenance information on an apparatus with each other.
2. Description of Related Art
Remote maintenance systems for maintaining and managing image forming apparatuses have been utilized for the purpose of regular readings of counters, checking of consumables and update of firmware in the image forming apparatuses, change in settings of the image forming apparatuses, self-diagnosis of the image forming apparatuses, and grasp of the operating condition of the image forming apparatuses on the occurrence of an abnormality therein. The above systems are such that a host such as a service center and a maintenance information communication terminal are connected together by a dedicated or dialup line for transmission and reception of information or data (maintenance information) on an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a multifunction apparatus to which the terminal is connected. There has been a demand for remote maintenance systems that do not burden customers with communication costs or with setups, that is, with installation and occupation of communication lines.
As a system that meets the above demand, there is known one in which, for maintenance of a facsimile for example, a service center originates a call to the facsimile, while the facsimile recognizes a telephone number of the service center, determines that the call is originated from the service center, and shifts to a maintenance mode to connect a line, whereby a charge for the call is saved (e.g., Japanese Patent No. 3129186).
Also known is a system in which a center device originates a call to a facsimile to inform that the center device requests maintenance information of the facsimile, then disconnects a line once, and, after completion of the facsimile's recognition of the request, originates a call again to the facsimile to acquire the requested maintenance information, whereby a connection time wasted for the facsimile' recognition of the request is eliminated so that the telephone bill is reduced (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 9(1997)-247330).
When an abnormality occurs in an image forming apparatus, especially when troubles occur a predetermined time in succession, remote maintenance systems such as described above are used to transmit information on the troubles immediately to a service center and thus to a service engineer so that the service engineer can make a visit to maintain and quickly recover the apparatus.
There are two types of methods for informing a service center of a trouble in an image forming apparatus. One is a method in which an image forming apparatus connects a line to a host and the other is a polling-type method in which a host regularly connects a line to an image forming apparatus to grasp the condition of the image forming apparatus.
In the polling-type method, however, since the condition of the image forming apparatus is grasped for every predetermine interval, the host cannot immediately be informed of an abnormality in the image forming apparatus. In the method in which an image forming apparatus connects to a line to a host, on the other hand, though the host can immediately be informed of abnormality, a communication charge is made to a customer even for a call to inform a trouble of less urgency, and also the telephone line to the customer is occupied for communication with a low priority. In an office with a smaller number of telephone lines, there is a fear that all the telephone lines might be occupied with communication of maintenance information to interfere with the work of the customer.
Under these circumstances, there has been a demand for remote maintenance systems that burden a customer little even if there is a need for irregular transmissions of information from an apparatus.